Well, I’m nearly at the point of putting the deck on and clinching those nails around the bow of this tiny vessel.
Tonight and last night I built the steering wheel pad, installed the stringers (the walls of the cockpit) and shaped and installed the compression struts (which you can see at an angle on the floor of the boat).
All that remains is to seal the inside of all internal cavities.I’ll do this with epoxy, and with some epoxy filler along the edges and seams.
Here are the latest pictures as promised.
Only 8 days to go until I leave for the boat show.
From the bow - shows steering wheel pad, stringers and internal support.
Detail showing the fine craftsmanship...
Made good progress this weekend.
I have all the components for the internal bracing prepared. The only piece still to be built is the transom pad that the outboard motor screws to.
A few modifications have been made (inadvertently) along the way. The two side pieces didn’t match exactly so I had to plane the taller of the two which in turn means that I’ll need to shave several millimetres off the cross piece. I’m sure that this will not have a detrimental effect on the boat performance. Only issue is if I can bend the plywood on the top that extra distance.
For the rest of this week I’ll be fitting the struts, and the transom pad, and then I’ll start fibre-glassing the interior spaces and all exterior edges.
I have three weeks left, and need to time application of resin along with drying time, sanding and then painting.
I have no idea how you’re supposed to be able to make this in a weekend.
Here’s some pics on progress.
Most of the hard work is done
Fore strut, sides, cross piece and struts
An odd post from me after what seems like months of silence.
Readership of my blog is in steady decline - it’s obvious that content, new content especially, keeps the readers coming back.
Interestingly I’ve had a readership spike over the last couple of days since Ali Mau sort of ‘revealed’ that she is ‘possibly’ in a relationship with another woman. So what, I say.
My spike in interest is solely based on search engines finding the one story I wrote about Alison Mau. Her reaction to Paul Henry and ‘mustache-gate’ was enough to drive people to Skinny. I guess I should thank Google for that.
But I digress.
I’m currently building a boat which seems to have been taking up a lot of my time. It’s called a Minimax. It’s a mini hydroplane literally built from two sheets of plywood (marine ply if you want to spend up large) and some odds and ends of untreated pine board.
I’m on a tight deadline. I need to get it finished for the Antique and Classic Boat Show, held at Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes every first weekend of March. This is the eleventh year. I’ve been about eight times previously, as official photographer. Last year on the 1oth anniversary I decided I needed to participate as a casual contender, hence my boat building began.
The Minimax plans first appeared in Popular Mechanics in the 1950’s. The plans for that and many other Popular Mechanics boats can be found on Svensons Boat Building website here.
According to the instructions the boat is a typical ‘father and son’ project and can be built in a weekend. So far that has not proved to be true. I have two sons, both of whom are too young to help, other than passing rulers, or nails, or screws. The kind of help I actually need was an extra pair of hands to hold pieces of structural support in place while I glue or screw or both. Hence my ‘weekend’ project is taking a bit longer.
I will post some progress pictures, if I remember to take them. In the meantime here is a shot I took of a Minimax in action at the 2009 Antique and Classic Boat show. It can take up to a 15hp outboard and, with that motor, achieve speeds of up to 30 knots.
Minimax hydroplane
Stay tuned for more updates as construction continues.
Shocking news from the New York Times in the obituaries.
Vic Chesnutt, who I saw perform at the San Francisco Bathhouse last July died of an overdose of muscle relaxants.
According to the notice he had attempted suicide several times and failed. The day before Christmas in 2009 he succeeded.
Vic Chesnutt was a great singer songwriter. Confined to a wheelchair since the age of 18 when a car accident left him paralysed he relearnt the guitar by playing only the easy chords. His simple melodies wrapped themselves around witty and sometimes complex lyrics - often with an apparent sense of humour.
His songs have been performed by many big acts: REM, Madonna, The Indigo Girls and Smashing Pumpkins.
The financial burden of having to pay for his medical treatment seemed to have played a part in his depression. This prolific songwriter will be sadly missed.
Andrew Williams appeared with Mike Hosking tonight on Close Up defending his position over the rumoured late night texts. It’s one of those situations of either you believe him, or you don’t. Each side seemed to have evidence that supported their own claims.
Rodney Hide, Andrew Williams, John Key
Everyone except John Key. Interviewed on Breakfast he appeared as vague as he always does when trying to evade specific questioning. He adopts exactly the tone he did when he “couldn’t remember having an opinion about the Springbok Tour of 1981″. All I can see is a man squirming and looking uncomfortable and evasive.
Williams has evidence that he only texted John Key at 12.16pm (two months ago) just after the house rose from urgency - so presumably John Key was awake at the time. But then Williams disingenuously claimed that he ‘couldn’t recall’ sending a text at 3.30am and that if he had it was longer than 4 months ago - which seems beside the point.
At the end of the interview Williams claimed this was all an ACT conspiracy to discredit him and to push the Super City - a shoot the messenger scenario. Maybe he’s right. Williams certainly has the knife out for Rodney Hide asking, under the OIA, for records on the actual meetings that took place while Hide was away with his girlfriend. Turns out there were not many.
This saga will continue until Andrew Williams is out of a job - which may be sooner rather than later.
These are happy dairy cows
Two companies, Southdown Holdings and Five Rivers, have put an application in to start a dairy operation that would see 18,000 dairy cows housed in pens known as free stalls. You can see the application here.
What are these people thinking? And why are the Federated Farmers supporting them?
Apparently there is a plus side to this type of farming: it makes the ‘farmers’ more money; and it’s supposed to be kinder to the environment because the effluent can be easily collected.
On the negative side the animals need greater doses of antibiotics to prevent infection, plus they’ll be fed on grain, not clover or grass. Both of these things have an effect on the milk production. These chemicals leach through into the milk so that you and I end up drinking them, and being fed on grain will alter the taste.
What’s more the grain that they feed these animals is likely to come from palm plantations that are replacing natural rainforest. Any apparent lowering of the carbon footprint is more than offset by the fact that grain will need to be shipped in.
What’s more frightening is that this will irreparably damage our reputation as a clean green producer of sustainable sheep and beef meat, and milk. If a feed lot for dairy cows is allowed then the next logical step is that beef farmers will want to intensively farm their animals and we’ll end up like the US - crap meat, crap milk.
Why is the Federated Farmers supporting this move? They believe that this sort of farming should be encouraged. According to Federated Farmers President Don Nicolson:
This style of closed cycle farming means effluent can, for example, be put into bio-digesters with the resulting biogas used to power the farm offsetting farm animal emissions. Surplus energy could be sold into the national grid and all the while, nutrient loss is minimised.
This is what the emissions trading scheme is meant to encourage, isn’t it?
What he doesn’t take into consideration is the long term implications for New Zealand as a whole in allowing this type of farming. This isn’t a farm - it’s a factory. And the welfare of these animals is compromised as much, if not more, than the pigs in pens that caused so much controversy several months back.
Fun and Games | Skinny | 
February 24, 2010 9:32 pm | 
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